Facts and Fiction About the So-Called “Summer Slide”

Do children really learn less during summer vacation? Less of what?

Every summer we hear from educators about the “summer slide” in academic learning (e.g. here and here). The claim is that children lose much of what they gained from school during the summer break, so time is lost catching up in the fall. Some even argue that school should continue through the summer, so as to prevent that loss! Here are a few questions and thoughts that come to my mind whenever I hear about the summer slide:

If children lose academic skills over the few weeks of summer, then did they really ever learn those skills? It must have been pretty shallow learning. (For more on this point, see this essay, by Kerry McDonald.)

If the skills taught in school are lost so easily, then what happens when people finally finish school and go on to life outside of it? Won’t the skills be lost then? If we’re going to force children to stay in school all summer so they don’t lose skills, then maybe we should force all of us to stay in school our whole lives, so we don’t lose skills!

Very often people writing about the summer slide seem to assume that the only learning that is important is learning that occurs in school and is measured on school tests. It’s amazing to me how often this assumption goes unchallenged. As I’ve argued in my book and in many essays in this series, the most important lessons of life cannot be taught and can only be learned in real life. In real life we learn how to make our own decisions, how to create our own activities, how to actually DO things as opposed to memorize things. For schoolchildren, summer is a time for immersion in real life. School, at best, prepares children for more school. Real life prepares children for real life.

The claims about the summer slide led me to be curious about the data. What does the research actually reveal concerning a loss of school learning over the summer? I spent a couple days digging into the research literature, and what I found suggests that much of what we hear about the summer slide is myth.

Research relevant to the summer slide has been going on for about 100 years. Most of the studies referred to by advocates of school through the summer were conducted decades ago (for a review, see Cooper et al., 1996); so I went back and looked at those studies. All in all, the research indicates that, as measured by standard academic achievement tests, there is at least as much academic gain during the summer vacation as there is loss. . Most of the studies have focused on reading and mathematics abilities. Although the results are somewhat inconsistent from study to study, most studies show either no significant change or an increase in reading ability over the summer. The concern seems to be with mathematics, where quite a few studies show a significant decline. That got me curious. Are all kinds of math abilities lost or only some?

Math calculation declines but math reasoning increases over the summer.

I found three research studies in which students were tested just before and just after summer vacation with math achievement tests that separated calculation ability from math reasoning ability, and they all showed that calculation ability declined a bit over the summer but math reasoning increased quite substantially! To me, this is no surprise.

Calculation tests assess the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide without error (without a calculator). A typical easy question might be, What is 58 plus 44? A harder question might be, What is 5.291 times 8.3? Students in school generally learn the procedures for doing such calculations by rote, without necessarily understanding why you do it that way. Material learned by rote is pretty easily lost when it isn’t rehearsed. Today, of course, hardly anyone does such calculations outside of school; we all have calculators or computers.

Math reasoning tests assess students’ understanding of math concepts and their ability to use those concepts to solve problems. This, of course, requires much deeper knowledge than the rote memory needed for calculations. A typical easy question might be, How do you determine the area of a rectangle? Or, a harder question might be, If a gallon of paint covers 200 square feet, how much paint do you need to cover all four walls of a room that is 20 ft long, 15 ft wide, and 9 ft high? This question does require some calculation, but first you have to figure out what it is you need to calculate.

Here are the findings of the three studies that separated calculation and reasoning.

Parsely & Powell (1962) tested students, in grades 1-6 at Willoughby-Eastlake public schools in Ohio at the end of the academic year and again at the beginning of the next. For the calculation test (called “fundamentals”) they found a somewhat different pattern of change for each grade level, but, overall, there was no significant gain or loss over the summer. For the reasoning test, most grades showed a significant gain over the summer. When I calculated the average gain in math reasoning, for all grades combined, it amounted to a grade-equivalent of 0.24. Stated differently, they gained as much during summer vacation as they would be expected to gain in a quarter of a year (which is about the length of the summer). The biggest gain—0.55 grade equivalent—was shown by the 6th graders.

Grenier (1973) tested 7th graders in public junior high schools in Griffin, Georgia, at the very end of the academic year, and then re-tested some of them at the very beginning of the next academic year and others two weeks later. Her math test consisted of three components: computation, concepts, and applications. For my purposes, here, I combined the concepts and applications scores, to produce a math reasoning score. Here are Grenier’s results. For computations she found a grade equivalent decline of 0.22 year for those tested immediately at the end of vacation, but a grade equivalent increase of 0.10 year for those tested two weeks later. So, there was a summer slide in computation, but that loss was more than regained within two weeks back at school. For reasoning she found an average grade equivalent increase of 0.48 year. In other words, during the three months of summer vacation they gained nearly half a year in math reasoning ability.

Wintre (1986) tested Toronto elementary school students in grades 1, 3, and 5 at the end of the school year and, again, at the beginning of the next school year. I can't compare her findings directly with those of the other studies, because she reported only the mean raw scores on each test and did not show a conversion to grade equivalency. But the pattern of her results was the same as that for the other two studies. Combining all grades, she found a significant increase (+5.4% in mean score) in math reasoning and a small decrease (-1.7%) in math computation. She also tested word knowledge and reading comprehension and found significant increases in both of those, of +5.2% and +6.2%, respectively.

Which is more important, the ability to perform calculations accurately by hand (which nobody in the real world does any more) or the ability to understand the meanings of mathematical concepts and to apply them to real problems? The former ability increases more rapidly during the school year than during the summer; the latter increases more rapidly during the summer than during the school year.

So, take away summer, and we will produce lots of graduates who know how to do calculations but have no idea why anyone would do them other than to pass a test. But then, of course, they will forget how to do the calculations by a few weeks after graduation, as that is what is lost when not in school.

Maybe instead of expanding the school year to reduce a summer slide in calculation we should expand summer vacation to reduce the school-year-slide in reasoning.

Before closing this essay, however, I must acknowledge that much of the concern about the summer slide has to do with the gap between economically impoverished students and others. It turns out that students from poor families gain less and lose more over the summer, on tests, than do those from families that are more well off. That’s a serious problem, because it is one of the reasons why young people from poor families are derailed from careers that require higher education. I’ll address that problem in my next post. Stay tuned!

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Source: Basic Books with permission

And now, what do you think? Are you in favor of expanding or shrinking the academic year? What would be lost if kids lost summer vacation? What would be gained? This blog is, among other things, a forum for discussion, and your views and knowledge are valued and taken seriously by me and other readers. Make your thoughts known in the comments section below. As always, I prefer if you post your comments and questions here rather than send them to me by private email. By putting them here, you share with other readers, not just with me. I read all comments and try to respond to all serious questions if I feel I have something useful to add to what others have said.

Grenier, M-A. (1975). An investigation of summer mathematics achievement loss and the related fall recovery time. Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, 1975. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Parsley, K. M., & Powell, M. (1962). Achievement gains or losses during the academic year and over the summer vacation period: A study of trends in achievement by sex and grade level among students of average intelligence. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 66, 285-3

"School, at best, prepares children for more school. Real life prepares children for real life."

This fits well with my life, and not in a good way. However, the public discourse in my home country (of Denmark) would make it seem like that would almost be a good argument for more school, so that children are prepared for more school at the level of higher education.

I should not comment about summer school because my children are homeschool, but compulsory education is bad enough to continue in summer. Kids need a break from what adults think they should learn ...my two young adults are having the time of their lives. One attended the Western Michigan University Seminar (High School Summer Music Camp). Today is the last day, and I am attending his percussion concert. The other one who is younger is in NYC for a five weeks dance Summer intensive. Both have learned so much that overpass any formula they can learn in a math class. Besides, if they need to learn math which my son will do this Summer before going to college in the Fall, they can download the app of Khan Academy and study between the YouTube channels they follow...

In Australia you can choose to home school & within that you can pick between 7 catergories for how you want to teach your child. They range from getting text books & a curriculum from your nearest school, to never letting your child pick up a book & letting them just learn from watching you & watching life.
I am choosing the latter.
I believe school today is redundant because of the Internet & I want my son to be formed before he is exposed to things like online porn. I want to be able to have control over the friends he spends time with & the people he is influenced by until he is old enough to make the best choices.
Your article gave me even more reasons to believe in my choice. Thank you

What was so amazing about homeschooling is that the curriculum- at least for my children was built around the things they we're interested and their abilities.
I followed a formula that worked very well for us. I facilitated for them to Excell in the areas of strength and I help them to push up the areas of weakness.
I am convinced there are different types of processing information, and so, I moved those mind/brain processing in those directions. My son focus his attention, and interest in the areas of science, math, computers, robotics, music/percussion, and movies. As a child, my son started playing with train, then watching Thomas the train tank, then playing with Legos, being part of a Lego team and from there to First robotic and robotic competitions, he also did computer programming and watch tons of videos about technology. At the same time, he started taking classes in percussion at the Flint Institute of Music. He went from a single class to be part of the Flint Youth Symphony and the Honour Percussion Quartet. Now he will go to Western Michigan University to study music with specialty in percussion.
Homeschool gave us other benefits beside building his curriculum around his interests: 1) we spend our resources of money and time in good classes, good experiences, good mentors, instead of brand clothing to fit in school, or to be popular. 2) We learn to be self-sufficient and find our own solutions by looking information in the library or YouTube videos or books. 3) We created networks that empowered what we were doing and found in the process great people doing the same. What made this group so powerful is that we were not parents competing with each other to have our children be the valedictorian at the school, but helping all the children to succeed. 4) And although my son won several awards in some of the activities, that did not made him part of an special class like it happen in schools that are built celebrating the winners and shamming the losers. His talents we're used to teach other kids robotics and he learned to share not to keep.
5) Finally, and the most important element that we learned is that time is the Most Valuable Commodity Children Have. He learned that his time belongs to him, and that by making his choices he is building his future, not mine. Wow!
...Now, with my daughter, the story is completely different, she likes movement and voice. I am also coaching her thru different options and learning in the process too. I am learning about dance schools, auditions, and the like.
I will not change homeschooling for anything in the world. Instead of having my kids in the middle of the adults political agenda, the corporations trying to sell them things, the media trying to impose for them what is cool and what is not cool, and the clicked of kids forcing them to belong, they are working in their education for their own future, and they own we'll being. What could be more empowering than that?
Good luck and your child is very lucky to have parents that are wheeling to construct such experience. Enjoy!
I also forget to tell you that homeschoolers, in general, have very good relations with parents because there is not this world of them vs us because everybody is pulling in the same direction...you can distinguish homeschoolers easily and know they are homeschoolers when you see teens walking in the mall with their parents and talking to their parents like is the most natural thing to do. Enjoy it,

Very interesting. As with so much in education, the research is more complex and less supportive of the standard model of schooling than the public debate suggests. You just have look into the details.

I wonder if some of the intellectual benefit to free summers might also be present in adults? A break from work, especially if that work is mostly drudgery or is especially stressful: I imagine that might translate into some measurable life improvements. Do you know, Dr. Grey, of any research investigating this?

In my home, we don't distinguish summer from the rest of the year. I grew up in public school. And, summer always seemed to be a time of "healing" if nothing else. Because more growth took place during that time then while in school. Having your minds engorged all year is a great way to ruin the minds of many. And its been working flawlessly for the government for well over a century.

Learning is an every day thing here at home. 365 days a year. There are no break periods. Because my children do not get terrorized by large long doses of useless force fed information to the point of needing a break. They learn what they love. And they love what they learn. I presented them with the alphabet, a writing chart, and letter combination word sounds. This was a year ago. And I assisted for one month. Then I turned them loose on their own. They could choose to continue. Or to do nothing. My intellectual daughter came into this world with the love of learning from books. So she continued without being coerced. Her improvements and recognition motivated my lego loving son to do the work. Exactly one year later, I decided to test their skills. Amazingly. They can write any word. Print or cursive. They can read 75% of all words. And this was due to their own efforts without me. I'll say that is an amazing leap without a bullying teacher standing over them every day.

Great to have a fact-based evaluation of the so called summer slide. Will keep this one in mind when my colleagues start complaining about the students who "forgot everything" over the summer in a couple weeks' time.

Question/post suggestion: I have seen a preponderance of articles, even TV ads, which suggest parents are harming their children because they do not give them enough attention, thanks to smartphones/devices distracting the adults. What is your take on this? I would be interested to hear your perspective since this seems to be a commonly held belief. To me it seems like an extension of helicopter parenting. Or, shaming parents for not being helicoptery-enough.

Good question/comment, Curious. My guess is that, in fact, there are many families in which parents aren't responsive to their kids because of being distracted by their electronic devices and their always being "at work," because their work continues at home via their devices. It's a good counter to the claim that kids are too distracted by their devices. I do think it's important for family members to communicate with one another, to be aware of one another's needs. My view is that trusting parents are available to their kids while still trusting them to make their own decisions and solve most of their own problems.

Many years ago I heard the writer if the KONOS curriculum at the MACHE conference. She described a year during which her husband and sons built their home. During the year she gave the boys books to read, but otherwise they did nothing "academic." Her state must have required to an annual standardized test, and she was anxious since they had done little to no "schooling" while building, especially no math. Yet, the tests showed the boys had advanced! No math texts, just real experiences! And books, not textbooks.

If you only knew about the unique summer learning model being implemented in the poorest areas of California. Sure, it helps youth sharpen their skills in math, literacy, science, physical fitness, nutrition, the arts, and more. But it's all about play, creativity, inventiveness, experiences, projects, teamwork, and fun. Physics is disguised as robotics. Literacy is disguised as an adventurous kids-want-to-read-it book that is discussed and comes to life in the summer program theme. Science is in the form of crazy science experiments that are just plain fun. And the list goes on. It's more like a camp than traditional summer school. Yet, kids learn. Yes, there IS a way to keep low-income youth busy, active and excited about learning over the summer--all the while, addressing the "summer slide."

Families with resources: two parents with a parent not working, enough money to pay for summer camps, and enough time and money to travel or visit museums etc really don’t have to worry about summer slide. It’s the kids who spend the summer inside, alone, unchallenged because of a lack of resources who experience notable loss and fall further behind each year. And kids in the middle - who don’t qualify for free enrichment programs- also suffer.

Summer slide is real for many students. Dismissing it as an argument against year-round schooling misses the point completely. And most year round schools have significant breaks throughout the year, allowing for the free play and enrichment that you describe while also minimizing the slide for those kids who don’t live in idyllic worlds where drummer vacation is an adventure. It’s not a myth just because it doesn’t happen in your world.

Would it be possible for you to go back to this essay (and others) and link the next article that you mention at the end? I would like to read the post on the summer slide as it relates to at risk populations, but often find it difficult to find these upcoming articles that you frequently mention.

The author of this article did not accurately reflect the scientific reports he referenced. He cherry picked his information and completely omitted key points, such as those scientific reports indeed CONFIRMED that the summer slide does exists. Read Harris Cooper's report, "The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores: A narrative and meta-analytic review." Kerry MacDonald, who wrote the essay the author referenced, makes her career promoting home schooling so her essay is inherently biased and again does not accurately reflect the summer slide.

Did no one at Psychology Today check this piece and its references before publishing it? A quick Google search and they would have easily discovered how inaccurate this article is on the topic of the summer slide.

Hi Angela,
I noticed the same and reviewed that article you noted as well.
Here's my take: yes, summer slide is real and yes, Dr. Grey had cherry-picked information to support a view - but that view is that the information that students are tested on is not worthy of even learning. The gains students had were not in the arbitrary application of rote memorization. This could have been better addressed in the essay. So, the summer slide definitely exists in regards to the details that the brain deems "useless" while students have gains in areas of true application.

We agree with with the author where kids should not have to stay in school all year long because kids should have time to themselves and time to spend with their families. Not only that but school is over a period of ten months a year, five days a week, eight hours a day. Which deserves a break.

We disagree with the author when he speaks about the fact that students lose calculations a few months after graduation because many students carry on using them well after and in their jobs. Also many students math inclined and enjoy it.

We agree with the author when he says poor kids gain less and lose more over the summer, on tests, etc. But one counter-point is sometimes that is not the case. Many poor children often have more of a drive than those families that are well off. Many poor students have more of a motivation to be successful because they have to work harder to achieve their goals. It is true that poor children do not have the resources that other families have which may cause them to lose more knowledge over the summer.